2016-10-04

Early Morning Ngaben (Cremation)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

Woke up to my first morning in the world’s largest Muslim nation, though this trip I am in a corner that mixes Muslim with Hindu, Buddhist and animist traditions – Bali. As I stepped out of my very basic but comfortable enough hotel I walked into the following:

It’s a cremation ceremony. Ngaben (pronounced Nah-Ben). I’ve seen a few of these now so I did not wait to see all the doings right through this time. This was the first time I got close enough on the beach to see the body, however. No doubt wishing to look directly into my own mortality. An old man. It was a good seeing so many taking great care to give him a reverential send-off. Not too many years and I’ll be like him. I left smiling, warmly assured. He was so peaceful and loved.

Bio
Latest Posts

Neil Godfrey

Neil is the author of this post. To read more about Neil, see our About page.

Latest posts by Neil Godfrey (see all)

Demigods, Violence and Flood in Plato and Genesis — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus-Critias – 7c] - 2023-01-25 09:00:48 GMT+0000
Primeval History from Cain to Noah — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus-Critias – 7b] - 2023-01-23 07:12:28 GMT+0000
The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical - 2023-01-12 23:26:21 GMT+0000

If you enjoyed this post, please consider donating to Vridar. Thanks!

3 thoughts on “Early Morning Ngaben (Cremation)”

junego says:

2016-10-04 10:49:01 GMT+0000 at 10:49

What a wonderful and fascinating look into another culture. Thank you!.

Reply
Christine Veazey says:

2016-10-04 17:30:24 GMT+0000 at 17:30

Lucky you to be there!

Reply
Bob Jase says:

2016-10-04 20:27:32 GMT+0000 at 20:27

That is not what I want when I order toast for breakfast.

Reply

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

"Thanks much for this book review. I think it expands, and contributes to, the effort in honouring Thomas that we with Lukasz originally had in mind with this volume. Best, Emanuel"

-- Emanuel Pfoh - August 2020
"I always enjoy reading Neil’s blog because I think that he is careful, thorough, intellectually fair, and honest."

— April DeConick, – November 2007
"These reviews of yours are so bloody weird!"

— James Crossley, – April 2010
"I’d like to thank you for this very nice representation of what I was trying to show in the book. It’s always gratifying when a reader zeroes in on exactly those aspects I thought were most interesting and most central to my argument. Thank you for this careful and engaged reading of my work – much appreciated!"

— Eva Mroczek, – June 2017
"Fantastic. I’m so glad you’re helping to spread these ideas!"

Nancy Fraser - June 2019 (personal email)
"By the way, my thanks to Neil for an ongoing superb job of exposing Jim’s review for what it is: a farcical and none too effective exercise in mythicism assassination, nothing to do with rational, let alone unbiased, scholarship. I’m also happy to see even Jim giving Neil credit where credit is due."

— Earl Doherty, June 2011
"Very good. This post is going straight to the March 2016 Biblical Studies Carnival."

—N.T. Wrong, – March 2016
"Thanks for your very elaborate review! I realized that I hadn’t added your blog to our blogroll. This oversight has been corrected. Looking forward to more segments."

— Anthony Le Donne, – September 2009
"Neil, for what it is worth it is obvious to me that if you had earlier in life tracked into a graduate program at one of the world’s leading research universities you would be one of the world’s formidable ones. You are doing essentially the same quality now (apart from the philology and languages) except mostly sticking to commenting on others’ work as informed comment/discussion."

— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
"Neil, this is actually rather useful. Good job."

— R. Joseph Hoffmann, – June 2014
"Thanks for this detailed interaction! I’ll try to offer something more substantial than 'Thank you' in response at some point, but I didn’t want to wait . . . to express appreciation for your detailed interaction with what I’ve written!"

— James McGrath, – June 2009
"Here I give an admittedly subjective short list, in random order, of useful, high level and regularly updated weblogs on the study of the Old Testament . . . ‘Vridar: Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science’ (http://vridar.org/) by Neil Godfrey"

-- Klaas Spronk, - Bibliotheca Orientalis LXXI, 3/4 (2014)
"I’ve even been cited by atheists with approval (which I really don’t know how to take, so thanks, I think, but I’m not sure, Vrider (even though I feel like I need to take a shower now))."

-- Jim West, – September 2010
"Neil Godfrey and Tim Widowfield, who both write at Vridar . . . happen to be some of the most astute and well-read amateurs you can read on the internet on the subject of biblical historicity. I call them amateurs only for the reason that they don’t have, so far as I know, advanced degrees in the subject. But I have often been impressed with their grasp of logic and analysis of scholarship. I don’t always agree with them, but I respect their work."

— Richard Carrier, – March 2014
https://earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=145080#p145080
Neil made a good synthesis of the work without being an “expert” of the field.

-- Enrico Tuccinardi, - October 2022
"Vridar is consistently thought-provoking, well-informed, and asking the right questions. There are intelligent, thoughtful comments and commenters regularly offering productive discussion. Books and publications are covered with a range of perspectives with attempts at fair and accurate representation of others’ arguments and content (where there are occasional and inevitable missteps on that I notice Neil making corrections and apologies where warranted, which wins points with me). Please carry on."

— Gregory Doudna, – January 2019
"I want to say here that this site is so resourceful and highly on top of the most modern scholarship in the areas discussed here. . . I know of no other site which offers a wide range of topics related to careful critical analysis of historically and scripturally related issues."

-- Martin Lewadny, - March 2009
"I find your blog most interesting and appreciate your ongoing effort to keep to the evidence for the issues discussed!"

-- Thomas L. Thompson, - April 2020
"I have found your website really valuable as an interpretive filter for Biblical scholarship, especially the origins of Christianity and historicity of Jesus issue. Your clarity of expression, fair comments and personal insights are much valued. I refer to your site frequently as yet more names and publications pop up requiring an academic critique and helpful recommendations for book purchases. So, please continue to delve deeply and share this intellectual sustenance with your grateful readers."

— Mary Booker, – February 2020 (personal email)
"Many thanks for this post, and for the quality of your blog."

— Philippe Wajdenbaum, – November 2018
"Note that I do not use the term ‘amateur’ pejoratively. . . . In fact, Godfrey is extremely well read and his librarian skills have brought many important academic works to my attention."

Raphael Lataster - August 2019
"I still wonder at all the material you turn out for Vridar. The more I read your stuff (and I still do, of course), the more I realize how much we all owe you. Your voice is unique."

— Earl Doherty, November 2013 (personal email)
"Neil, You’ve done a clean job in your posting on ‘Jesus the Healer’. It reflects well on you. Best, John"

— John Moles, September 2011 (personal email)
"I think you have a high quality blog that provides a positive public service by discussing academic topics within a wider audience."

— Russell Gmirkin, – October 2016
"For an excellent example of generally high-quality scholarship by someone who isn’t a biblical studies professor, see Neil Godfrey’s work posted on the website vridar.org."

— Tom Dykstra, – JOCABS 2015

Russell Gmirkin on Demigods, Violence and Flood in Plato and Genesis — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus-Critias – 7c]: “The above left out the quotes I was responding to: It thus seems likely that this aggression against the Greeks…” Jan 25, 18:44
Russell Gmirkin on Demigods, Violence and Flood in Plato and Genesis — [Biblical Creation Accounts/Plato’s Timaeus-Critias – 7c]: “<> Good nuanced discussion. There is a definite contrast between Timaeus, which portrayed the earthquake and flood as bringing about…” Jan 25, 18:42
John on Another Pointer Towards a Late Date for the Gospel of Mark?: “Used some of your ideas here in a blog post: https://secularfrontier.infidels.org/2023/01/corporate-sin-post-script-did-the-historical-jesus-know-john-the-baptist-my-last-blog-post-for-a-little-while/ . Thanks” Jan 24, 17:05
Philippe Wajdenbaum on The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical: “Dear Austendw, Many thanks for your detailed reply. We will probably not convince each other, but it is a worthy…” Jan 19, 19:39
Austendw on The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical: “Hi Philippe I had really hoped to just alert Neil to a different modern approach to the issue of the…” Jan 18, 20:01
Neil Godfrey on Jesus: a Saviour Just Like the Kings and Gods of Egypt and Babylon: “As for Near Death Experiences, I ask myself what is more likely: that a person really did in some sense…” Jan 17, 01:55
oldsterngary@gmail.com on Jesus: a Saviour Just Like the Kings and Gods of Egypt and Babylon: “There are tonnes of things in the ot that draw from ancient near East beliefs, further Myth made fact a…” Jan 17, 01:19
Philippe Wajdenbaum on The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical: “Dear Austendw, Darshan’s essay is fascinating, and shows in my opinion how much Leviticus’ sacrificial and purity laws are at…” Jan 16, 23:00
Austendw on The Ambiguity of the Serpent: Greek versus Biblical: “Hi Neil As you may remember, I have not in the past been a fan of Russell Gmirkin’s theory that…” Jan 16, 15:49

Neil Godfrey

Latest posts by Neil Godfrey (see all)

Share this:

Like this:

3 thoughts on “Early Morning Ngaben (Cremation)”

Leave a Comment Cancel reply